Its hard to say if these claims are true but if it is, its pretty dick of him to do. Its your job and you are getting paid tons of money. Regardless of whats happening next year, one should do their job to the best of their abilities, IMO

Amen to that, but few actually do it.

And drivers aiding to development, I think that's overrated nowadays IMO; it's all about aerodynamics now, and most drivers don't know squat about that. Remember RBR has Renault engines, so Renault is not lacking in that department. The wind tunnel doesn't lie. I personally think drivers' role in development is minimal at best; engineering teams are a lot more important now. If a car is slower than others at top speed, what the hell can I driver contribute to increase it??? But yes, engineering still has to match car to driver for maximum handling benefits, and that requires some driver input (telemetry provides most of the feedback, no?).